Uncertainty When I Met You
by lilousritts
Summary: Keith was always a very tedious, energetic child. Never knowing much about the looks his family gave him or the constant fighting behind closed doors about his behavior, until he had eventually stumbled upon the outcry of irritation and frustration his parents had with him. He changed. Becoming someone else entirely, just to please his parents. That is, until he meets a boy.
1. Chapter One: I Used To Love The Rain

**_Chapter One: I Used To Love The Rain_**

* * *

 ** _Rain_**. It was something I had admired from a young age and something I knew others despised or thought of as a nuisance, I felt the same way as the rain. I felt as if I had been a nuisance to people around me and that all I was causing for them was annoyance and bitterness that slowly started to build up within their minds and hearts. When I was young I never thought these things, I always felt carefree and didn't think of the things I did to be so frivolous; I guess I had been wrong. I asked for everything, probably more than I cared to admit than most, it didn't bother me or the person I was asking for a couple years because. _'It was just supposed to be a phase'._ That's the sentence I heard fall from my parents' mouth almost every other day, it didn't hurt as much anymore because I knew that I couldn't change their view on me now, but when I first heard it I couldn't understand their words and their feelings behind them, I was oblivious to the cold-hearted words my parents spoke and continued on with my day-to-day act, not noticing the hatred in the eyes of my parental figures.

I used to get up later in the morning for school, I didn't do it to annoy my parents in any way I just wasn't able to get up earlier. Now that I know they don't want me being disobedient I've been getting up earlier, or I just don't sleep at all. Homework helps me stay up, being that it's the beginning of the school year for eighth grade and homework likes to be thrown at you as much as possible, it isn't hard for me not to be busied with papers and studying.

When I woke up this morning it was silent, except for the low rumbling sound coming from the corner of my room from a small fan that was sat clumsily on my dresser. My hair felt all over the place and my eyes felt droopy, I couldn't see much due to it being still dark out and the fact I had just woke up from the uncomfortable feel of the desk beneath me, while also on top of multiple papers that included an essay on an interesting book I hadn't yet finished but still wrote about, and a few math papers. My neck hurt from the lack of normality of the surface below me, my neck immediately cracked as my head lifted from the desk but in an unpleasant way, not in the way I was used to. I turned my head and looked towards the darkened sky showing through the glace window, I assumed it had been around four in the morning which meant I would have at least two hours till I had to leave for the bus even though my bus came around at 7:20. The glass looked fogged and my room felt as if heat was nonexistent, I'm not sure how I was able to fall asleep on such a cold surface but I guess overworking yourself to the point of falling dead asleep on top of your desk is a good enough explanation.

Getting up from my discomforting chair was a pain, my feet had started to gain feeling once more which caused me to stagger a few times when I was getting across the room. I went towards my dresser with heavy steps and reached for the small fan as it's low breeze slipped through my hair lightly. I wasn't expecting anyone to be up at this time, only because both of my parents worked day jobs and got home later in the night which left me to dawdle around and work on assignments I was handed with that day, dinner was a different story though. Sometimes it would be early and sometimes it would never happen, but either way, I never really expected anything to come out of it such as an excuse or an apology, I just didn't expect a lot anymore. As I was about to pull open the middle drawer of the dresser in front of me I heard a faint but fairly noticeable knock bouncing off of the door causing me to still and silently stand in the quiet followed after the small knock. I was waiting for something subsequent to happen, and nothing did for a solid five seconds until the low voice of my father grumbled past the wood, _"Keith, are you up? If you are, go back to sleep, it's way too early."_ It seemed that his presence lingered a little longer until finally I heard his footsteps walk away and back to either his room or the bathroom that was across the hall, and the breath I had been holding unintentionally was finally released. I wasn't expecting him to be up because he was never up this early, so I usually had time to myself but that was really _unusual_.

After my father had come and knocked on my door and told me to sleep I had just worked on my half-finished essay that had been due two days from now instead, it was better for me to get it done ahead of time instead of sleeping more and I was already too awake to go back to sleep anyways. This was the first book report of the year and it was decided for us that we would be able to choose our books at the beginning instead of choosing our own at the end of the year since we only have two book reports to actually fulfill within a certain timespan. Most of the kids in my class chose a lengthy book they knew they couldn't read or understand, and some kids chose simple books and pretended to find them to be difficult, eighth graders can be lazy sometimes but they always end up making it seem like they did a decent job on something, which in itself, is pretty astonishing. The book I had gotten was something the teacher recommended her students not to read, but the book sounded fascinating, so I convinced her to let me read it, but only _if_ I was able to write an actual decently typed out paper with the maximum of three pages and within a five week span, which had been a longer time-span than the rest of the students unless she wasn't telling me another student of hers also had the same agreement with her.

The title of my book is called _House of Leaves_ , it sounds like it'd be boring and time consuming but once I had picked up the book and read the first couple of pages, I was instantly hooked. The pages are all different, the names of the characters are unique sounding and they have actual personalities to say the least. I looked down at the keys of the borrowed computer in front of me and I realized I had an almost all the way written report but my endless thoughts stumbling out caused me to stay on the computer for nearly two hours, so it meant it was around six. My face fell and a low sigh made it's way through my parted lips as I leaned my head back and let my hair fall into my face almost instantly, I'm used to tireless nights and countless unanswered questions filtering my mind as I stayed awake but sometimes I'm just too emotionally exhausted to do anything remotely consistent or maybe it's not really emotionally exhausted but just plain exhaustion from a multitude of things or people. As my hands clasped around the wooden desk I heard a second knock that morning but it seemed more relaxed and calm, it was most noticeably my mother on the other end. _"Keith, the bus is coming in an hour, be dressed and come downstairs at 6:40, your father and I have something to discuss with you involving.. school."_ Her voice quieted at the last part and as soon as she was finished her feet turned and walked away, leaving me with the fear growing inside my stomach about them figuring out something I knew was deemed **_inexcusable_**.


	2. Chapter Two: Insensitivity

_**Chapter Two: Insensitivity**_

* * *

After hearing the bitter words slip from my mother's mouth, all I could do was panic at the thought of both of my parental figures staring down at me with senseless eyes and a forming disapproving snarl appearing on their stone cold faces. My heart started to palpitate and my nails started digging harshly into the skin of my arm, not realizing the marks it would leave behind or the small droplets of blood starting to make it's way to the surface. I looked cautiously at the silent closed door staring back at me with dread, and felt as my fingers tightened and my teeth grazing and biting down ever so harshly at my bottom lip and bits getting stuck uncomfortably in my braces. I still hadn't been used to the fact that I wasn't able to eat certain things, even if it had been close to two years of having them, and how they would sometimes be extremely annoying when brushing or flossing them to the point I would just not try as much at keeping them clean for the first month, maybe _year_ , of having them. The only reason I had to get them was because my parents decided that my teeth weren't at _'Perfect standards'_ and I guess being punished with metal laced around every inch of your mouth and tightly secured around your teeth and them urking you every few minutes for the first couple months is better than having _'Not-so-perfect teeth';_ Such a _grand_ improvement.

I eased my grip slightly and moved my hands to my sides, staring intently at the markings my nails left behind and the blood flow making it's way back to the intensely gripped spot only leaving my mind to wander at what to do for this situation. I contemplated on whether or not I should just leave my parents waiting in the kitchen as I would just sneak out of the house or just face with whatever they had to say and get it over with; I decided to just walk into the kitchen, sit in front of them, and listen to the lecture. I walked over to some clothes I had taken out a few minutes before my mom knocked on my door and made her announcement and started to change out of my now distasteful pajamas and into freshly clean clothing, or at least clothing I'm most comfortable with and wear _too_ often; A red and white baseball tee with rolled up jeans, clearly worn and faded from all the times I had decided to wear them to give you an exact description.

I shifted my bag slightly as it made it's final place on my back, but as I looked over to my desk I found that my papers were still scattered across it making my already unamused face more irritated at most. I walked over to it and placed the papers into my arms and the book I had been writing about in my free arm, sighing disapprovingly at myself while walking over to my barren and unscathed door with unwanted and disconcerting memories attached to it. I looked down at the handle and held in an annoyed breath to keep myself from becoming concerned with something as unimportant as a door handle that I wasn't able to use properly due to my arms and hands being occupied with other materials and possessions, so instead I bent over and down to have better access to the door and to steadily use my elbows to see if it could at least open the door slightly. After a few moments of struggling to open it up I finally saw the handle turn and I stumbled out, nearly dropping my papers and book onto the floor, along with me almost falling face first on the ground.

My dad heard the noises I had been making from my heavy steps colliding with the floor and decided to make his opinion stated. _"Keith, come to the kitchen_ _ **now**_ _. Me and your mother don't need you to dawdle around the house and avoid confrontation so stop being stubborn."_ I didn't give him a response and just adjusted myself once more only to make my way down the lifeless hallway filled with an obscure amount of family photos plastered on the walls that seemed to only feel like they were staring down at me with cold, disappointing eyes. Clutching the book closer to my chest I turned the corner and made my presence known by giving my parents a simple _'Morning'_ and walking over to the perfectly centered dining table that had my mother seated down at, holding a small glass in one hand and a book of some sort in the other. Glancing away from the unidentifiable book, she gave me a disapproving glare and then rested her cup slowly onto the table once my father eased his way into the open space, but he didn't give me a simple glance with unreasonable anger he simply just stared right through me as if I was nothing to him at that moment in time. It was more painful to recognize the fact that I understood the way they stared at me thinking I couldn't pinpoint what exactly was on their minds. "Keith, your school called two days ago with concern about your wellbeing in certain aspects that you aren't very comfortable with, such as socializing or you joining a type of group that could expand your- **_views_**." I let out a breath of relief when he wasn't angrily yelling at me, accusing me of fighting with other students or breaking something, false statements the school faculty had fed him once or twice during my span of being in school for two months.

"You should know by now, _sweetheart_ , that you'll need to eventually liven up a bit once you enter high school. You can't be so consumed with yourself and the fruitless things you do in your spare time. We aren't so much worried about your education, we just feel as though you need to actually socialize with _human beings."_ The anger in her voice was unable to be masked, she almost cursed me out but caught herself just in time before she had a meltdown. "Your mother is right, Keith, you need to be more concerned about your mental health. You can't be happy being alone all the time, being holed up in your room occupied by restless reading and working on countless homework that is downgraded compared to the intelligence you already have." He gave me a pitiful look as he stared me down once more, with my mother drinking from her pristine cup only glancing at me ever so often. "I don't want to deal with people right now. I just want to focus on school, and I'm busy with a book report at the moment, I don't need any kind of distraction." I removed myself from the conversation before either of them got another word into it and left out the door once I reached it, feeling a twist in my stomach and an unrecognizable numb feeling in my mind that I strangely felt familiarity to.

As I made my way to my bus stop, passing by the bleak and undifferentiated houses, feeling a trickle of water drop gently against my hand. _'I forgot an umbrella, great..'_ I chastised myself as I got closer and closer to my stop, but as I became familiar with my surroundings I noticed a taller boy leaning against the tattered and decrepit bench that stood solemnly and firm on the ground. I stopped in my tracks and felt my hands clam up at the sight of another person standing where I frequented for the past two years, my feet turned slightly inwards and towards each other as I felt my face engulf with worry and utter horror; How am I supposed to interact with this person? I guess I had been so entranced with my thoughts that I wasn't able to hear the boy calling out to me with both curiosity and worry tracing his vocals.

"Hey, are you alright? You've been staring at the ground for a few minutes too long." He let out an awkward chuckle but genuine enough to peak my interest and snap my head back up not knowing what to say or do. "I can see that you don't look too hot at the moment, I'll introduce myself first. The name's Lance McClain, I've actually lived in this neighborhood for a few years now but since my family moved closer I had to change bus stops." I slowly let myself ease a little but stay firmly cautious of interactions between us, so when I walked away without saying anything he found it to be strange and mildly rude. " ** _Hey_**! Did you just walk away from me? I was trying to be nice!" I sat myself onto the bench and ignored his ear piercing complaints and instead found myself to be reading silently from my book and have a small smile trace my lips unnoticeably.


	3. Chapter Three: Exuberant Smiles

What felt like countless hours of waiting in the cold wind and rain that stirred up more over the moments I had decided to sit casually on the bench, the bus came rolling rather quickly on the road, stopping subsequently near the sidewalk with it's flashing lights shining too irritatingly bright for my liking this early in the morning. The boy I had been talking to earlier before had run up to the bus before I had the chance to get up from my place, laughing an arrogant and carefree laugh showing off bright teeth, scattered freckles amongst his skin along with premature acne forming around his neck; I only held myself back from groaning at his childish, bubbly persona along with a subsequent smile that I lost moments before wanting to form again.

I felt my eyes were locked on his lanky figure climbing the steps and disappearing into the depths of the bus, so-much-so that I nearly missed getting up entirely. Scrambling with my belongings and the dampness that had gathered on my clothing, backpack, and scattered papers with my book I moved quickly along the pavement, feeling as though everyone was looking at me through the fairly tinted and water scattered glass. I made my way up the steps and noticed a few heads turn towards me with either blank eyes or sneering smiles. I lowered my head with an annoyed grunt, moving hastily down the aisle before gluing my eyes to an empty seat close to the front and slumping down onto it, and after a few seconds of sitting in my uncomfortable position and the bus beginning to move once more I decided on placing the somewhat damp papers into the book and storing them both in the somewhat open bag. I had been expecting the bus to be almost completely empty and my ears to be filled to the brim with white noise due to my _'serene'_ predicament this morning, but to my dismay, that was _so far_ from the case.

Laughing was bouncing off of the cold walls of the vehicle, moving between groups of two or more people that were filling up the front and back of the colorless and seemingly lifeless bus that was showing on the outside, distinctive humour coming across the air and unusual talk becoming a blur mixing together vividly. As my breathing made it's slow pace through my nose, and my eyes were glued on the degrading and terrible colored seat in front of me I felt a sharp voice ring in my ears, a somewhat familiar noise.

"-pfft, yeah! I'm the funniest guy you're ever gonna meet, not trying to toot my own horn or anything." I really wished I wasn't listening on such a centered conversation, whilst I turned my body around and my face leaned over the side of my seat, I'll I could see was the smiles of Lance, I think that's what he said his name was, and the figures of a shortened girl with darkened hair flowing down her shoulders with a somewhat amused smiled plastered on her face alongside, to what I assumed to be, a friend of his which he had been noticeably taller than the other boy, with slightly messy brown hair with what seemed to be an unamused yet terribly hidden smile on his lips. I guess I had been staring for too long, when the taller boy turned his head away from his friend and made eye contact with my piercing gaze, he only tried to smile at me and almost say a _'Hello'_ but I moved quickly before he had the opportunity to say what he wanted.

I internally chastised myself for staring for such a long extent of time, being caught was the least of my worries since it was by an unknown person I never made myself figure out. Maybe the fact of me not really wanting to know anyone is what's causing such a downgrade on me personally, I'm pretty sure I was social when I was younger because most kids are, but the only person I've ever really willingly kept in contact with and talked to is a _'Childhood'_ friend that is _slightly_ older than me. He's a Senior, to be specific, by the name of Shiro Takashi. He's more of a family friend, used to watch me while my parents were out doing whatever they had planned that night or busying themselves with.

After my inconsistent moping in my seat from the staring I kept locked on their bubbled laughing atmosphere, I felt unusually different from the lack of whatever they had, it was enough for me to blank out as the other students made their way off of the now unmoving bus I hadn't seemed to notice until a tap was poking at my shoulder inconsistently. "We meet again, Mr _'I leave in the middle of a conversation'."_ I moved my head towards the familiar person, letting my features fill out in a way that caused the boy to step back slightly, and enough time for me to uneasily move his hand and light grip away from my shoulder and personal space. He ended up being taken aback by it, then let it become brushed off with a half-caring smile. "You're gonna get stuck on here if you keep zoning out-"

My face flushed once I realized all the other bodies had emptied out and I had awkwardly, and most likely, _weirdly_ , been staring off at nothingness. I huffed out while I pulled my bag back over my shoulders and stood up to see I had been a more statured person than Lance. Before I moved harshly between him and moved up the aisle, I saw that he hadn't been with the two others he was laughing with before, striking a bewildered face to occur. "Wait, why'd you take the time to tell me this? Weren't you with your- _friends_?" To me it felt that my voice came out more strained when it reached the word _'friends'_ but Lance hadn't noticed the weird turn in my tone, he just instead tensed at my sentence in general, averting his gaze to the side. "They had remembered to finish up a paper, and well, I saw you kinda zoning out while walking past and I was the last one getting off so.." His voice trailed off while he was deepening the conversation with slow moving lips and stabling his contact on the ground. I just continued to look at him while I stood, before sighing lightly and pushing past him.

"You better hurry up Lance," My voice was filled with a snicker and full on _mocking_ of his own words filling out my mouth, still walking down the aisle as I could hear his shuffling feet at my sudden comment, I only glanced back with the words he used on me. "- _you're_ gonna get stuck on here if _you_ keep zoning out." My lips pursed, trying to hide a smile that I was surprised that wanted to show, my eyes becoming half-lidded as his own face contorted with embarrassment, his mouth even closing and opening every few seconds as he quickly followed after me and the bus driver yelling us down to hurry off the bus so she could leave her place.

* * *

My feet had begun to drag against the pavement, and the fact that I didn't allow myself to go faster towards the school building from my lack of energy was _excruciatingly_ exasperating in itself. The rain wasn't helping me in any way either; My hair becoming fretfully watered down and the dreary atmosphere that decided to engulf me was anything other than comforting and endearing. The clapping of shoes on damp cement was coming up behind me, with a heaving voice coming along with and the smile darting it's way to my lips once again, appeared. I turned my head around to be faced with the quickly approaching figure of the lanky boy, his backpack making it's way off of his shoulder and his realization coming into view once he saw that he was now going to collide into me, and I'm pretty sure if I were to move he would've come face first into the hard concrete. I snickered quietly to myself, forgetting the presence of another person being mere inches away from me, so as I turned my body completely around a force had bombarded me with it's weight and I hit the ground with an unanticipated, agonizing pain striking though my entire backside along with my imbalanced footing flooring the pavement in a distorted and unpleasant manner.

An agitated and shrill tone vibrated through my throat and out past my lips in a strained and forced way, the body that tumbled it's way over me was still heavily on top of my chest, his hands on both sides of my head, ' _My head is probably either in excruciating pain or have some a type of lacerate',_ but I wasn't focusing on that and was instead looking dazed off while staring at the blurred faces making their way past me and the collided body or huddling over and trying to help up Lance. I heard him curse under his breath about something that happened to his hands, while he lifted his head and grabbed onto a hand hovering over the both of us, while I on the other hand, continued to lay motionless on the ground feeling pain make it's way up my torso and straightforward from then on.

I let out a shaky and airy grunt as I tried to lift myself up to a somewhat stable sitting position, seeing that Lance was still there blabbering on with his face too close to my own with his hand hovering over my chest and my hearing not catching up to what was being said, I felt only irritation and pain file through my head. As he continued to let his hand linger and dangle above me, I only sat up and gave him a pained and conflicted face; All that I was able to muster, at least. Moving my own hand up, pain coming through causing me to hesitate for a moment, I gripped his hand and pushed it away as I managed to gain control over my movements once more, placing my opposite hand on the ground and trying to push my way up as best I could. Seeing that I was able to stand, pain and not a lot of balance coming with it, I picked up the scattered pieces of the event and felt the back of my head, seeing if blood was anywhere near dribbling through my hair and down my neck, and indeed there had been some type of gash that formed causing some blood to cover my fingertips as I moved them away from the spot.

My eyes widened slightly, not paying attention to anything happening around me, feeling whispers and talking surrounding me and in a blurred motion, one of them being Lance looking at me with some type of expression I wasn't able to look at and differentiate whether or not it was pitiful or worry. I moved away from the scene, ignoring the protests of other people calling after _someone_. Someone that wasn't me, _naturally_. I kept a firm hand on the back of my head, blankly walking into the building and navigating through the staring eyes, towards the nurse's office. Everything still hurt, and I could feel a presence of some sort walking behind me, but it didn't leave me fazed and I continued on with my journey.

* * *

My body slumped down in a short and slow motion onto the uncomfortable and rubbery bed that was located in the far corner of the small room, where the woman sitting slouched in her chair looking over something on her computer was splayed across in the front. I heard her clear her throat, moving away from her desk and standing up straight looking me over with a sympathetic yet disappointed look filtering out her tired eyes and small smile. She fixed her glasses in a more comfortable situation, and made her way towards me with small strides. "Well, Keith, I'm sure you'll be fine for the time being but I'd like to contact your parents to pick you up and bring you to your doctor since there's only so much I'm capable of doing, and the way I fixed up your wound isn't professional enough to keep it in a stable state as pitiful as that sounds." She gave off a small and dismissive laugh, but cut it short as she planted herself next to me turning the back of my head towards her. I was, on the other hand, internally panicking since my parents shouldn't have any clue about this. _'It'll only lead to assumptions, I'll get in trouble and something worse might even happen..'_ I only let out a slow and stable exhale of breath as she kept inspecting my damaged head. "Ms, can you please not say anything to my parents?"

She immediately stopped her fiddling and inspection as she instead let me face her and her look was nothing more than disbelief and confusion. "I'm sorry, Keith, but your parents _need_ to take you to your doctor. I can't let one of the students going here not be fully examined with something as damaging as this. Why, exactly, do you not want me to contact them?" Her words trailed off her tongue as she crossed her arms slightly, staring at me with concerning and widened eyes waiting for a response. "I-It's nothing, I just don't want to trouble them with something that wasn't even my fault." My voice was slightly raised and some type of defeat made it's way through my statement, but before the nurse could respond, a person I had no need of seeing any further this day, made his way into the room with a sullen and guilt ridden face.


	4. Chapter Four: Concerning Predicament

I stared back at his sun-kissed skin and airy breaths he took with every passing second, it was clearly causing some kind of nerve to pop from the nurse by how she stiffened and stared back at the boy with thinned eyes and a questionable glare going straight through him. I clasped my hands around my arms and gave Lance a more pained and irritated look, I wasn't in the mood to be presented with the person that caused me to be put in this deafening situation in the first place. He was the cause of my worry of the fact I could be gradually yelled at by both of my parents, mostly my father as my mother would silently agree with his overbearing sentences slipping from his mouth. I tightened my grip slightly, turning the other way and not watching as the nurse went to stand calmly in front of the other boy.

"Lance McClain. Very interesting to see you in here this early, what is it I can help you with? Did you fall over again, we wouldn't want what happened last time to happen again-" Her voice never wavered as she spoke, even by her presented words — they never seemed coy, either. I don't know why I had been expecting her to tease him like a smaller child would do to their older sibling, but it seemed like it would end up that way. "No, of course not! T-that never happened anyways, it wasn't something to worry over. My friends just — _overreacted_.." His voice was at a higher pitch and they never left the eyes of the older woman, which caused her to sigh inwardly and examine over the boys shaking hands by how tightly he was balling them up in a defensive manner. _Odd_. "I only came here to see him," His finger pointed carelessly in my direction, which caused me to stare over at his bustling and overactive behavior. "I ran into him on the way here, I mean it was _his_ fault for being in my way, but he just stormed off before I could say anything! He didn't even let me help him!"

Gaining my full attention now, I fell into a ballistic and angered attitude. I gave him a look of disbelief and felt my jaw clench to hold back my insults. " _What_? If you're angry for how I reacted, then you shouldn't have even _come_ here! What's the point in checking on someone if they clearly don't want or need your concern?" The nurse looked between us, clearly growing more with frustration trailing her features. He gave me a dramatized gasp and threw his arms in the air for some sort of effect of this discourse, but then he pushed past the woman and walked towards me; spewing whatever nonsense he wanted to throw. "Well then, I _tried_ to help you but you're obviously way too stubborn and care more about your pride than I initially thought! Oh no wait, there's another word for that, you're acting like a stuck-up _dick."_ Ms. Deffery held back her angered words and only clasped a hand roughly on Lance's shoulder, looking down on him with a threatening look to try and ease him away from furthering his comment. "Lance, don't use that type of language. You know better than to talk disrespectfully towards another student and in front of an adult nonetheless." She looked over at me, her expression softening ever so lightly but continuing her grip on Lance's shoulder as he grumbled annoyingly under his mouth.

"Keith, I'm going to contact your parents. I don't want to leave you with your injury unexamined by another, so stay put while-" I shook my head as I breathed through my nose sharply. Dragging a hand nervously through my hair, it entangled and I eventually removed myself from my spot hurriedly — standing with heaviness bearing down on me. "I'm sorry Ms, but I would rather not have to trouble them. I'll be fine, just please don't call them," She parted her lips again to retort to more demanding measures, but I walked quickly past her and Lance, avoiding any eye contact between the two. "I'll be on my way now. And Lance, don't speak to me ever again. I don't want some nosy nitpicker to be associated with me, this whole mess was terrible enough." And with that, I swept the door open easily, blocking out the protests by the nurse and turning down the hallway to my first period class, not consuming myself with the fact the bell could ring at any moment.

* * *

I had made it to my first period class without many people - _close to none_ \- trying to see if I was alright. I didn't really have friends anyways, so I didn't mind the fact nobody was considerably worried about me and continuing on with their own antics. Sighing in relief once I settled into my chair, I looked up at the large board with small and distinctive handwriting filling out the schedule for the week. Being that it's nearing the third month of school, our teacher has already made it distinctively clear that a future project will come into play; and she was right, on the board it clearly states our unduly project.

| _All Eighth Grade Classes! Read Below For Your Primitive Report|_

 _This year you'll make the understanding of a person of your choosing, and by all means do NOT choose another from this class!_

 _Write a descriptive and collected report of said person, time-span will consist of two months._

 _DO NOT choose someone you know like the back of your hand! I want you to be able to understand someone a reasonable amount that you clearly don't know._

 _If all does not meet a stated requirement_ — _most likely the choosing of said person_ — _I will have the upperhand in choosing someone for you. So, please, do not make the decision in choosing someone you know._

I felt my mouth dry and my eyes widen at the subtlety of the words written in a pristine way. The assignment was basically _'Ask a random stranger if you can write about them, and then get to know them because why not?'_ I crashed my hands into my hair and pulled slightly to try and ease myself in some way, but to no avail I ended up becoming more panicked. I looked desperately at my desk for some sort of relief, and I could feel my head becoming more lightheaded with each passing moment, along with my hands tightening on my scalp. I heard footsteps pass by me with a calming stance, I shifted my gaze towards the sound and there was the same gaze my parents threw at me whenever they had the chance; when someone is looking down at you. Glasses glaring at me, no chance in sliding off the girls nose, her arms poignantly crossed and a very unamused, blank face occupying her babyish-like features. When she tilted her head forwards, her hair followed in suit and the bright green jacket wrinkled due to her action.

"Hey. You. Are you alright? You look a little — _tense_. By all means, it isn't any of _my_ business, but I'd gladly like to make it my own." Her voice seemed more boyish then I had expected, but her words were what caught me off-guard. "W- _what_?" Her face didn't contort with laughter or amusement, she continued on with her constant and intense stare that looked as if it would burn into your core if you hadn't looked away. I turned my body more towards her, and quirked my brow. "Pidge. Name's Pidge. Most people call me that. Not really too keen on my actual name since it's not something I find remotely — fitting, to my person. But you, you look unexpectedly different from what you usually look like. Quiet, stoic, antisocial — but now, you're giving me some difficult presumptions. I'm just assuming, but," Her head turned to look at the back of my own, then down at my confined placement of positions. "oh, wow. He really _did_ do a number on you. Lance can be such an idiot sometimes, I'm surprised he hasn't _'accidently'_ fallen into some sort of body of water."

A snort escaped her lips, many more people had entered the room whilst our one-sided conversation carried on and apparently people were more intrigued with what we were saying instead of their own talking and giggling. "Sorry about him, he's very — _energetic._ I think most of the kids our age are." It was my turn to give out stifling laugh, which caught her attention along with the many others that had stared at us. "Are you sure we're the same age, you look a little small for an eighth grader, don't you think?" I could feel some different emotion well up in her system, causing her to direct her newly clenched fist to my shoulder in a harsh and painful manner. She laughed when she did it and sighed in content once she saw my face twist into a sour and pained expression for the second time today. "Please use your words in a nicer way when talking to me, I'd hate to have to collide my fist with something else on your body. But it was interesting to finally talk to you, you always push everyone away so this was something I wasn't expecting. And, try not to be so-" The bell had interrupted her before she had said the rest of her sentence which led her to grunt in annoyance and slide indifferently into her seat that had been across the room.

* * *

I rubbed my arm hastefully, waiting as the seconds passed blissfully, until a larger body dashed into the room with no shred of grace. Most of the other kids cackled in amusement to this — I just let out a monotone and bellowed chuckle, since this was a normal occurrence throughout the months leading up to this exact moment. The frantic teacher clobbered through a stack of seemingly unorganized papers with a fervor manner, enough to cause any type of sunken and dismantled feeling to drain away — except for me, I was worse when the woman entered the room and too encapsulated in my mind to pay attention to her misguided yapping about nothing other than our project and book report that was due in two days. Oh. _Right_. I forgot that the exact due date for it was around this week, good thing I'm almost finished with mine, but my due date was sooner than everyone else's which is why everyone continued to slack in their seats and never once tense when book reports were mentioned. Lucky them-

"Keith? Are you paying attention?" The woman's raspy voice drew me away from my panicked thinking, a few people erupting in laughter at my own embarrassment and me trying to tone down my reverberated anger tracing along my figure. I moved my eyes to my worried teachers' gaze, and only responded with a small _'yes'_ to which didn't stop her from continuing the growing distant worriedness — and then she gasped, a nicer way of putting it. A more realistic and blunt way of putting it — she screamed. " _Keith_! What happened to the back of your head?!" She placed the papers on a desk that sat front and center in the, well, _front_ and she walked closer over to me. I only ducked down and covered said injury she wistfully cooed motherly over in scarceness. "N-nothing happened!"

"Keith Kogane, go down to the nurse. Tell her to contact your parents immediately, how can I leave you in this disarray? This is both troubling and horrifying, it can't go without examination." Stammering, the classroom falling silent with her serious tone and knowing glances, but also due to the fact I was tensing and was unable to speak out. I couldn't backtalk her, but I couldn't go along with what she wanted me to do so easily so in the end, I ended up staying absolutely still in my desk, boring my way into the desk beneath my fingertips and just dismissing all the silence bouncing off of nothing. "No, I'm not going." Her motherly gaze snapped, turning into a blowout of angered daggers stabbing into the side of my head, as I was avoiding her tampering. "Keith, leave. Now. I will pull you from your spot and drag you there myself if you continue to stay put." I glowered in her direction, feeling the panic side of me internally freaking out inside my head, eyes pointedly staring at me in every possible angle they could. My own frustration was boiling over with each — _agonizingly slow_ — minute.

A kid in the back yelled towards me, clearly bored with this situation now. "Just leave already, everyone is sick of your stubbornness now, it's kinda pathetic honestly." The teacher scolded the boy and all he had done was shrug it off, not clearly having the ability to care in the slightest about the consequences that would come from it. His friends laughed beside him. All I could do was let a bitter laugh escape my throat, my eyes burning from how strongly I was staring at absolutely nothing and me warding off any possible tears wanting to bring me into a more distressed state. Before I even acknowledged it, a tap was found on my shoulder. The girl before that talked my ear off was wearing the same emotionless face, glinted glasses, and fallen back hair, but this time she walked in front of me and signaled her hand for me to follow behind. I scoffed, clasping my hands together and feeling the burning sensation trail down my cheeks, but complied with her wordless request. She smiled slightly, and we left out the door.

* * *

"You know, I didn't really enjoy that class to begin with. Too much dealings with English terms and things I've been taught since Kindergarten. Science is more of my dilemma, and just technology in general. Dealing with all sorts of different inventions and having the satisfactory feeling when you get the code for it just right and it works in your favor. That's what I love." She knew I wasn't paying much attention to her rambling, due to my lack of speaking and instead more sniffling and held back — strangled, noise compiling in my throat. " _Christ_. I wasn't needing more weird interactions with you today, well, any interaction with you is weird since well you never talk to anyone and now you're crying and-"

"I'm _not_ crying." She laughed sarcastically, holding back a genuine snort, and continued to walk speedily in front of me; hair bouncing on the top of her head. "Sure you aren't. Stoic, unfeeling, and emo is more of your image, right? I'm not sure why you're so defensive, crying is natural when people gang up on you like that, even if it was ignorant for you to just outright ignore the teachers' statements. You're parents would be more worried if you didn't go see the hospital, since you probably already saw the nurse from how much your wound seems to be tended to. I mean seriously, why wouldn't you want your parents help?" I swallowed down the lump in my throat and measly made my way beside Pidge, fighting back retorts of some sort. "My parents.. they — don't need to be troubled with this. It was Lance's fault anyways." The girl only hummed to my response, not giving it a condescending answer or forlorn thought. It just became eerily silent. Our footsteps echoed off of the barren walls, her jacket ruffling against each other as she continued her laidback and uninterested walk.

"It really wasn't _just_ his fault, you should stop putting the blame on others just to make yourself less guilty. If you had just let him explain, apologize, and leave then you could've left to the hospital with your parents." Her tone shifted to annoyance, but her gaze never left the front, and her stance never faltered. I only sneered to myself, holding back the incriminating laugh holding itself steadily in my throat, if released it would only come off as choppy. "He didn't come to the nurse's to apologize. All he did was point his stupid anger in my direction and call me a stuck-up dick after saying I didn't let him help me when he ran into me. He just came in there to complain." It fell silent again, the atmosphere draining to absolute peeved tension, but of course it never affected me since this is what I was expecting — this was what I was used to. "You really don't understand people, _do you_?" The comment didn't come off as a question for me, just something she instead said to herself. That was the last thing either of us said as we continued our way down the corridor, and to the nurse's office.

* * *

As Pidge left out the door with no _'goodbye'_ I had just stood awkwardly in the middle of the room, the nurse staring back at me with a disappointed yet relieved stare. "Keith," The tone she gave me was only patronizing, hinting at the concerns she had about contacting my parents. "I understand why you don't want me to contact your parents, but in these sorts of issues, you have no say in what should happen. I _need_ to contact them, and you _need_ to be checked on." I gaped, my voice wanting to come across as rude and in no need of a call to them, but I only shut myself up and complied with her stinging words silently. An exasperated sigh filtered the room, then footing made it's way to a phone neatly placed on a corner of her organized, and well-arranged desk. Buttons were pressed quickly and a pick-up of the phone clicked, and then the words fumbled out.

"Hello, Mr. Kogane — no, Keith hasn't gotten into a fight, and he isn't in trouble in fact, he didn't even want to trouble you with this," Condescending. What a nice way to talk to my father, that will surely please him even more. " ** _Huh_**? Why would you not want your son to worry you with this? I have the obligation to ask under the impression that he is in my care at the moment at this school district- I'll get to it, alright. Keith had another boy run into him, it caused him to fumble backwards and form a small, but deep, gash to make up a part of his head. I took care of what I could, but I wanted to advise you to seek out your family doctor, just to have more examination for the injury." The rest of their conversation seeped through my ears unknowingly, I could feel pressure building up as I heard her say her goodbyes with him, a weirdly placed smile in her sigh and then she turned towards me. No scowl in view, no undermining glare — just a worried, and questionable gaze with a sad smile being forced away.

"He'll be here around 9:30, so in twenty-three minutes. I've only spoken to him a few times, but I wasn't expecting him to be unconcerned, mad, _even_ , with your wellbeing — he's a very interesting character." A slight tap to her arm from her opposite hand was ensued as she looked off at the now desolated phone and it's area. I only nodded solemnly to myself at her comment, hearing the clock tick aimlessly away as the tense air was beginning to settle in the pit of my stomach. "Oh, Keith, you can wait out in the hall now, I didn't me to get so caught up in my thinking, unprofessional really." The pitiful laugh filled the room, but I only rushed out with my bad weighing me down.

I turned down the hall and plopped myself down into one of the unoccupied seats, a hitched breath coming along from my collapse. My leg began bouncing up and down in a antsy way, not knowing what the time was from my lack of mobile device and no visible clock stabled on a wall, it only caused me to become more entirely panicked. Passing footsteps lingered every once in awhile, before they left entirely out of the office door — each time my pulse rising from it being possibly my father to be the one bursting through the door, a scowl making up his features.

I heard the handle of said door turn hurriedly, my gaze meeting up with the furious person standing in the doorframe. A sneering glare followed towards me, but as soon as the woman sitting absentmindedly behind the desk looked him over he changed to his neutral expression. "Hello sir, what can I help you with?" A low and over-practiced voice was coated over the said words that were spoken on too many occasions. "I'm here to pick up my son, the boy sitting in the chair in back of us. Injury was acquired to his person, and the nurse working today contacted me." The woman was clearly taken aback by his rehearsed lines and how monotone they appeared, but she decided not to comment on the abnormal behavior and instead asked him an inquiry of only two questions to excuse my absence for the rest of the day. The woman smiled slightly at my father's figure before he turned towards me and snapped his fingers to his side, causing me to stumble and follow in suit next to him.

* * *

We walked out of the building, towards his still kept on vehicle, no words mangled between either of us the whole time we had trekked the pavement. A raspy grunt was directed at me once we were mere feet away from the dark red car, glinting in the early sun's light and blinding my eyes for a mere second. We both stopped our walking, me anticipating something to happen along the lines of scolding, but all I could recall in that short moment in that empty area and the wind blowing softly in our direction, was the movement of my father coming to stand in front of me, and a swift motion of his arm moving up and a hand roughly colliding with my face that had a loud _'clap'_ echo throughout the open and empty space. The stinging pressure made its way to the colored spot on my cheek, but I never flinched or moved out of worry for my own hurting spot — just stood as still as I possibly could, as I looked down with widened eyes at the bleary sidewalk.

"Lets go Keith, your mother is waiting at the hospital and setting up an appointment as we speak. It's your fault for making us miss important business meetings today, we don't have the time for your petty fights with other students. There are always more important matters to look into. We both expect better from you, and clearly today wasn't something you weren't proud of either. " The shift in his clothes was heard, and then he began walking sternly away to the humming vehicle, annoyance evident in the way he slammed the door closed. Once worry started to kick in on whether or not someone had been there to see this scene play out, I snapped my head up and looked around frantically — back to the doors, around the plant life, and other places of noticeable sidewalk. Nobody was there to my relief, and with that I moved to the backdoor of the car, trailing my shaking fingers along the handle before finally opening it, sitting myself down neatly, then shutting it with the small _'thump'_ coming afterwards. The long moment of silence trailed on for far too long, but eventually we began moving and out of anyone's sight.

* * *

"Hey, did you see what happened outside?"

"No, why?"

"I'm pretty sure I saw — _someone_ — get slapped across the face by an older guy or something along those lines."


	5. Chapter Five: Singed Freedom

"I think you're just seeing things now, getting all your anger welled-up on imaginary scenarios." Hunk's laugh filled the empty space we were accompanying, moving forward slowly to get away from the boring class as long as we could—even if I was the one that got the idea and only dragged him along. "I swear! I saw it with _both_ of my eyes! Just this swift hand motion crashing along this kid's face," My hands moved to my own face, letting an exasperated groan filter through, while letting said hands squish my rounded facial structure effortlessly, my eyes narrowing in a confused and worried way. "I couldn't have imagined something as messed up like that, it's just not something **_I_** would really do. I'm the happy-go-lucky guy! Not the, ' _I'm-gonna-imagine-an-older-guy-slap-this-young-kid's-face-because-it-just-came-across-my-mind'_ guy!" I was practically screeching my opinion at this point, more defensive than I would really admit, but I can't just not be somewhat pissed off because the fact one of my closest friends thinks I would make something as insensitive and awful like that up.

Hunk's hands swiped across his chest in a defeated way, a clearly now annoyed look condemning his usual _'nice guy'_ persona. "All I'm saying dude, is that you should just relax. And that's saying something when it's coming from the guy that overthinks every possible thing and is anything _but_ relaxed." The last part he murmured quietly to himself, but continuously let the aura of worry sift through; he just didn't like the thought of people being anything but reasonable sometimes, too cautious even.

We continued our aimless walk through the hallways, almost getting caught by a few suspecting teachers, but then as the nurse's office was coming into few, us laughing about something that another student had done last week, ( _That something was him pouring milk over another person's head, it was surprising to everyone in the open cafeteria, it was even_ _ **eerily silent**_ _for a few seconds. Still don't know who that guy was_ ) a short statured person had come out the door in a huffed manner, narrowed eyes stumbling on us until they seamlessly went to a neutral position.

"Hey Lance. Good to see that you still skip class, most likely science with Ms. Connor's," A dramatic roll to my eyes, puffing my chest and pouting effortlessly caused Pidge to let out a cackle. "That class is boring, we learn the same thing everyday! Who the hell would enjoy that torture?" Taking my words from my lips, Pidge pointed proudly to herself, smiling cockily and tilting her head to outstand her endearment for the degrading class. "You'll learn someday, Lance. science is extraordinarily _awesome._ Right, Hunk?" Her eyes pointedly gazed his way, he just mindlessly shrugged and answered with a simple 'yeah' which in turn, made Pidge beam with pride. "You guys are such dorks sometimes—"

"Actually, Lance, people that trip over nothing and fall face first on pavement shouldn't be commenting on us science fanatics, since, as of matter factly, _you_ are the known dork." Her small index finger jabbed in my chest, her short stature wasn't intimidating but her natural glare and ways to point out embarrassing things about me, was indeed, _terrifying_. "Hey! That was a _one time_ thing, smartass," She only smiled amusingly to that, lifting her finger upwards and opening up her mouth, but _surprisingly_ , Hunk filled in for her. "Dude, come on, you can be a klutz a _lot_. Like that time during third grade, we all went to the fair together, and to impress this girl you liked, you went on that stage were the performers were and began singing. But after like two seconds?," Pidge nodded her head in affirmation. Hunk continued. "you tripped on the microphone cord and fell off the stage—"

My face turned from it's usually tanned color and bright undertones, to one of pinkish embarrassment. "That's not fair! You _promised_ you wouldn't bring that up again!" Before either of them could say anything or I could bring up something embarrassing they did, they both uproared with laughter. Too loud, that eventually a staff member found us and brought us all back to our classes.

* * *

The car was silent as my father perfected it's position in the parking lot. The engine turned off caused for my racked breathing to be revealed. I shifted myself so I could continue to stare through my window, but father had already had other plans. "Let's go, your mother is waiting. Remember?" I didn't respond, he didn't seem to notice or care about my lack of conversation. I focused solely on the window and what was contained on the outside, so when my father's figure had gotten out of the car and the atmosphere of absence was lingering, I didn't seem to notice.

He lowered himself and gave me a piercing, but very knowing, glare. Scrambling with the handle, the metal on my teeth scraping the bottom of my lip, I opened the car door and shut it gently as my feet hit the pavement and I was scorned with the constant, and disapproving stare bellowing from the man above me. We walked in silence for only a few minutes before we reached the sliding, automatic doors and walked inside the less quiet building. My mother was sitting subsequently in a chair on the right of us, foot tapping impatiently as she sat with a small laptop in hand, talking as silently as she could to the CEO of the company she worked at.

"I'm so sorry for the inconvenience sir, my son isn't usually this— _distasteful_ when it comes down to important meetings between his father and I, so I really apologize for not attending the chairman's appointment, physically." My father pushed on the small of my back to lead me to the opposite side of my mother, as to not disturb her furthermore. She had merely nodded in agreement to a statement the man on the other side of the screen said, and finally, she closed it with a heavy sigh.

"Keith, let's go." Her messiness of the loosened ponytail bounced as she walked in her heels, her legs having a confident yet irritating aura to them. I obliged quickly and hurried behind her, as my father took the seat at the edge of the row of chairs. Another woman of sorts escorted us to a smaller room that was depths in a large hallway. The short statured woman pointed me to the medical bed that sat idly in the middle of the room whilst my mother stood properly next to a counter, even after the smaller woman said she could sit. "The doctor will be here shortly to look after the wound, most definitely you'll need stitches. He'll also ask some questions as to how it ended up like this—"

My mother cut her off mid-sentence, speaking her mind without my opinion and actuality on the statement. "That won't be necessary, my son here got into a fight at school." The nurse quirked her brow, staring back at me then looking up at my mother once more. "Are you sure? He doesn't look like the type of kid to get into a fight, he also doesn't have any other scratches or wounds on other parts of his body." Clearly dismissive of that factoid my mother only shook her head. "He doesn't seem like the type for a lot of disagreeable deeds. And there is the possibility that other wounds on his frame are just not visible in this moment."

"Sorry miss, but it isn't just your say to have just your opinion of this matter. We need justification from your son, so, you'll have to see if your instinct is correct or not once the doctor arrives." I smiled at that, lowering my head down so it wasn't showing to either woman. I heard the footing of the other, close by the door, leave the room, door closing automatically after her absence. "Such an insubordinate nuisance," The low blow of her voice rested bitterly in the cold room, it made a shiver run down my spine. "I.." Her attention turned to me once I tried speaking out, maybe that had been a bad idea.

"I didn't get into a fight, mom. I promise, another person crashed into me and I just—I just fell on the pavement. I've _never_ gotten into a fight at school." She didn't say anything in that instance, just a grunt falling from her lips and the shift in weight as she stepped closer to me. "Son, I know you don't understand anything that me and your father do, but there are reasons for it—"

"There are actual reasons behind your terrible treatment? I _highly_ doubt that." I crossed my arms over each other, looking towards the still closed door and awaiting the yell to boil and to be stretched across for everyone nearby to hear. It never happened. It just stayed silent, disturbingly quiet, and even after the doctor had showed up, neither of us spoke another word to the other. As unruly and disconcerning as this sounds, I was happy to be given the silent treatment once we all had entered the vehicle and left.

* * *

Once the car was settled once more, and nobody had shifted their weight to move out, I insisted on my own movements and reached for the handle, left backpack strap over shoulder with my hand pulling onto it. "Keith," My mother said unenthusiastically, rather in fact, tired and lost of any motivation. "please be home by 9:15. Your father and I will be going to different meetings at six, so dinner will be made, just stored in the refrigerator." And with that, a low sigh came through and she was out the door, slamming it with any ounce of ability she had contained left. My father only gave me a stern gaze, before following after my mom's exhausted form, his hand finding her right shoulder and giving a comforting feel to her disfigurement.

Before I processed any information that was told to me, my knees buckled and my hands collapsed in my lap. A sagging tug from the bag on my shoulder was falling, weighing the left side of my body downwards, as I sat with my eyes fixated on the unusual cleanliness the floor was intoxicated with. Bubbly and unconcerned feeling was beginning to well in my chest, I was enabled to figure out what to do without the structure of my parents; I couldn't be any less than overjoyed.

Clabbering with the door handle and setting my entire body out, I slammed the door shut and went off. I had no idea where I would be headed off to, my body being more in control than my head since it had only been filled with exhilaration and disbelief, but all I know is that when I would come down to an old, rustic park with the few kids I had recognized from earlier that day, I would have to deal with things I _wouldn't_ know how to handle.

 ** _I was doomed._**


	6. Chapter Six: Awkward Confrontation

Do you ever just get that feeling of embellished dread? Like as if, someone, _anyone_ really, was going to attack you at any angle and you couldn't do anything to stop it, but still, in the end, you came face-first with it? No? Maybe I'm just going insane by the lack of oxygen getting into my brain. I had been standing aimlessly for less than twenty seconds, just watching the group flail around with joyous laughter erupting, like some creep. It was off, and I didn't understand why, I mean, I _understood_ why, but at some point my thought-process got the better of me and let me unable to really cope with anything at hand. Really, the question I only had at the moment was: ' _why in the world were all three of them in some rundown park, with no one else around?_ ' So in that time, the time with me standing idly and gawking at a scene full of perpetrators of idealistic students such as myself, I felt panic breach on my shoulders, slacking inevitably to the causes and stress I felt so early on that day; especially with the boy—Lance, god only dreams I could get that name out of my head—that caused me to internally freak out. He was there. Right _freaking_ there! (even in my head, I still can't budge to cuss someone out) Enjoying himself in the sun, enthusiastic smile plastered on his boyish features and determined brows fixated on who knows what.

But, besides that, I sought out nothing in particular in this area, I just stumbled upon it. Hoping it would be _something_ of interest, but here I stand, wishing this slapstick would end with second degree burns. I puffed my chest out, pride filling my ever protruding _being_ , and merely turned to face a tree. When did a tree even get here? It couldn't have just moved, great, now I'm becoming _paranoid_. This isn't good for me and the fact I'm only an eighth grader, imagine what I'll be like in a few _years_ — "Hey dude, are you alright!" The high-pitched voice reached my ear canal and I jumped the gun straight-on, feeling perplexed to have no need for any of this, so I continued staring at the well-informed bark and moved my eyes up and down it, trying to ignore everything coming from behind me.

Feeling as though hours had passed, I just stopped, and moved awkwardly to the side, footing being caught along by leaves I wasn't aware had been strewn about (they're leaves, they fell, how ignorant am I getting?). Peeking my head from behind my shoulder, I glanced at nothing, the figures were gone from sight and left no sound coming after it, or maybe I'm just starting to see things. "Oh, it's _you_." With no warning once-so-ever, I felt a sharp breath entangle with my throat and ceasing down to my lungs, turning my head back slightly to only see the three ( _two_ , really, Pidge was fairly short) looming figures. " _Christ_! How in the world did you even move in front of me? _Without_ me seeing you!" Lance was the first to roll his shoulders back, a small chuckle taking over his body leaving me to stare off at the odd scene, looking for any shortcut that I could use to get away from it. My movements of side-to-side escape was only matched by the movements of the taller figure with splaying tanned skin, freckles from all the exposure of past summers scattered on a majority of exposed skin, dotting dimples with mocking results; _Lance_. "Can you let me leave? I need _—_ "

"Sorry, but this is the only time you haven't spewed insults at me, I'm pretty sure this is the universe telling me this is the only moment you'll actually listen," I found only light amusement in his matter-of-fact statement, leaving me to curse away a small smile from pursuing on my thinning lips, instead I stood with an exasperated and determined look, showing I really was in no mood to contort myself with vile actions such as speaking with this _insufferable_ boy. "I told you to _wait_!" my body was halted by a paining hand digging harshly into my arm, I really thought he was too full of himself to really see I was leaving, why couldn't he just let me go? We hate each other (possibly), threw an insult or two at the other for whatever reason, and now here he is trying to seem like he even genuinely cares. Was it personal gain? ' _Probably.'_ Was I entirely sure of this accusation? ' _Definitely not_.' But, to the me in that time point, I really couldn't bring myself to really think with reasonable mindsets; not like it really mattered, he was too stubborn (as far as I could tell) to let me off with ease. "Why do you suddenly want to talk with me? Last I checked _you_ were perfectly fine fawning yourself with the approval of others, and _I_ clearly stated to you to _not_ bother me, correct?" Jabbing the last part, I turned my torso to inevitably stare wordlessly into the others eyes, both of us completely forgetting the two others standing idly by. Lance had huffed as if I blamed him for things he hadn't done, which in my conclusion, meant he was about to go off on some convoluted and aspiring tangent that could possibly turn a sharp left turn on this entire ' _conversation_ '.

"I, for your information, _tried_ to help you up when I ran into you _—"_ His body had swiftly moved towards my own, feet being so absurdly connected to the ground below as if it been non-existent, flying so drearily through the unbeknownst sky up above. As my eyes caught on to his movement, dark gaze being shot needingly through his hard-headed skull, his long and calloused finger only jabbed into my heavily breathing chest a few times, emphasizing whatever it was he was trying so hard to prove. I was unable to jump away, to yell an insult because in that moment I _really_ felt that sense of tension I was warranted to when my parents found any small reason to scold me, to backhand me to a corner of unformidable crisis; I was furious at the fact I was scared of this good-for-nothing idiot _— "Woah,_ how'd you get that bruise?" Shifting my hands from my side and instinctively forcing away from the other body pressing onto my own, giving me little-to-nothing on my personal space, I grabbed at both sides of my face and shot Lance a confusing glance. Nothing hurt, at least maybe not at the moment, but the fact someone had so eerily caught on to the discoloration of some part of my face worried me. "What are you talking about? You must be seeing things _—"_

 _"_ If I'm seeing things, then why are you covering up the evidence?" The cocky smile on his face proved my point to be weakened and everso disproven, I was indeed cradling my right cheek with my hand as 'unobviously' as possible, Lances' brow growing as each second seemed to press on. "I _—uh.."_

" _Pidge_ , _Hunk_ , come take a look at his face!" Before I could even respond in rejection or confirmation to the sudden statement of strangers I barely knew touching my face, said strangers (one stranger, really, Pidge) took hold of my arm with impeccable force and pushed it painfully down. "Yeah, Lance, you're right," he cheered entertainingly, fist pumping into the air, and then smiling confidently back to himself, which in turn faded away once he came to terms with the fact of me having a bruise there in the first place; it being entirely new and in fact, _real_. "how exactly did you get this, Keith? It's swollen pretty badly, colors forming closely to your eye and being entirely reddened, so possible an infliction of sorts, it's new _—"_

 _"_ It _wasn't_ an infliction," swaying the small girl back, pulling away from her small hand that held tightly around my arm, I only trailed my fingers along to where she had been inspecting. "I don't need random people I don't know to be butting in on whatever is _my_ business, it isn't and _shouldn't_ be a concern." The antsy feeling began to file unbearably through my system, the stares I couldn't quite place in a certain emotion category were staring so precariously through me, as though I was a mere illusion of a fragment of their vivid imagination, and in a way the wave of relief that shot through me when that one thought came into mind only made the atrabilious mood of mine dissipate; slightly, _very_ slightly. "I'll be on my way now, if that's fine by you, being that you're some sort of blockade." Sneaking a blithe smile as I caught the very faces in front of me switch between multiple other visages', I felt the small victory fall onto my slender and too over-broadened shoulders, I only turned on my heel with abrupt attempt and began leaving the area; finally taking in the breath of relief I could only wish to obtain at quicker acceleration. " _—nce!"_ I continued facing forward, even when hearing the small shout of indistinct blurs, I still faced the same direction. No need to turn. No need to care about strangers. This is better, anyways. You know, half of me expected to be botched of any reasonable senses, but once my left foot came into contact with the barely watered grass for the fifth time from walking away, the wind was once knocked out of me; breathing halting for a quick moment, and regaining once more once the pressure was lifted ever so slightly, I even had so much knocked out, I made some ungodly noise of being strangled loosely, if that is even an image to really imagine or one that makes sense.

Coughing a few hacks away awhile more, I could then sense the warm body heat of another wrapped so snuggly to my side, arm wrapping around my shoulder as if it had been no big deal; news flash, it was the _biggest_ deal. Does nobody know of personal space anymore? And that _I_ specifically don't really partake in situations where I have to be so close to another human. Not really my idea of fun or enjoyment. " _Take_. _Your arm_. _Off me_." My hearing caught onto some lines of the other two from before, Hunk and Pidge, yelling his way. At least they had the idea of confinement. But, head swiveling around only barely, I caught the look of coruscate on Lances' features, switching thankfully to one of amusement, the first one of course had caught me off-guard which I only assumed he got the hint of. "Why are you such a sourpuss?" I swatted a dismissive hand between both of our faces, causing him to step backwards off-handedly and break contact, I merely scoffed at the weakened insult, one that really didn't even sound like an insult and moreover a terrible question. "I'm not a sourpuss, I'm just not in the mood to talk to you. In _any_ way at _any_ time." His once amused expression painfully faltered into one of apathy, his bright brown hues with specs of immaculate gold swimming beyond it all staring through me; losing my own balance, I simply caught myself in the slipping of hands and feet, standing all too proudly; radiating off my very being, I felt threatened and unable to find the proper adjectives to describe my immoral defiance towards this descriptor of happy portrayal. With a swimming of candid thoughts, my bright hues of violet and druid lashes simply shifted to the side, my steps moving with immaculate force away from the scene bellowing behind me, clearing way for simplicit demand.

The earthy world escaping my vision, I only found comfort in the cracking pavement below my feet that had been contorted and hidden away by scuffed shoes with faded pigmentation of red showing off dimly along the all too bright sunlight lacing on myself and the figures approaching from behind. I wasn't so sure of what to do with this situation, I of course didn't want much to do with it since I wasn't capable of redeeming qualities or qualifications of interacting with others; but a part of me, a side I had completely disregarded, had begged for my presence to stay and bombard myself in loud shouting and possible closeness of strangers I couldn't bear with already. That side of myself was again disregarded, the thought of staying leaving a venomous taste along my lips in a disrupting manner, possibly I could stay behind and see for myself the mess I could get entangled with, if only for my own curiosity; I would eventually regret the decision if I knew there could be a better alternative, but in that moment I flickered out and went against my own distinguishing mannerisms. If only I knew better, then I could seek out the more tolerable path.


End file.
